Monthly Archives: June 2010

On Friday, the door will open to Tasha's Bistro Café. Photo by Wendi.The former Culinary Communion house at 2524 Beacon Avenue South is reopening on Friday evening as Tasha’s Bistro Café. Owner Tasha Sawabini promises “the finest seasonal ingredients and innovative combinations!” The café will be open for Saturday and Sunday brunch from 10:30 am to 2:30 pm, and Thursday, Friday and Saturday dinner from 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

Also on Friday night, the Street Treats dessert van will be back. Owner Diane Skwiercz writes, “I want to let you know that Street Treats is going to be up on Beacon Hill every Friday night starting this Friday July 2nd, from 6:30 to 8:30 pm. We will either be in the Washington Federal Savings bank parking lot or where we were last Friday (the corner of 16th and Lander — Ed.).” Follow their tweets here.

Look, but don't pick. Photo by Joel Lee.The Street Treats van visited the intersection of Beacon, Lander, and 16th on Friday night, bringing ice cream and baked goods. Photo by Wendi.Workers from SDOT work on the pavement at Beacon and Forest, where a new crosswalk with flashing lights will be installed later this summer. Photo by Jason.

Jessie McKenna of ROCKiT space and Beacon Hill Music, at the first Beacon Rocks! show on June 13. Photo by Julia Cheng in the Beacon Hill Blog photo pool on Flickr.Paul Ray of Beacon Hill Music writes, “Now that we’ve had our first successful Beacon Rocks! event, we are ready to fine tune things for the July 11th event and those to follow. Beacon Hill Music could use some help to build on what we’ve started.” Anyone who is interested in helping out with the Beacon Rocks! music series is invited to the organizational meeting tonight at 5:30 pm at The Station coffee house, 2533 16th Avenue South (just north of Beacon Hill Station and across from El Centro). If you can’t make it tonight, email beaconrocks@gmail.com to find out about other ways you can help the event.

This Saturday, Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) paving crews will be working at 17th Avenue South and South Forest Street, near the Beacon Hill Library. Traffic in both directions on 17th will take turns sharing one lane with the assistance of traffic flaggers. Anticipated work hours for the project are 9:00 am to 6:00 pm.

Update, 6/25: SDOT tells us the reason for the paving work is to prepare for pedestrian activated crosswalk lights that will be installed in the crosswalk later this summer. The lights will flash when a pedestrian activates the lights prior to crossing the street. Funding for the project comes from the Neighborhood Project Fund and the Bridging the Gap transportation initiative approved by Seattle voters.

Jonah Spangenthal-Lee of SeattleCrime.comreports on a melee that occurred last night at Saigon Nice, 4864 Beacon Avenue South. In the brawl, several victims received stab wounds, probably from broken beer bottles, and other victims received impact injuries from chairs, fists, and the like. There were at least six victims, and according to the Seattle Police report, “a lot of blood inside” the club. Some witnesses were less than helpful, according to Spangenthal-Lee, having “apparently developed what one officer referred to as ‘temporary amnesia.'”

Neighbors in North Beacon noticed police activity last night as well, including the Guardian One helicopter overhead and a larger number of police cruisers near 11th and Judkins. As Rose Egge reported in the KOMO blog this morning, there was a report of shots fired in The Jungle around 10:00 pm. Craig Thompson posted to the BAN list that it sounded like a semi-automatic firing three short bursts. Witnesses saw two black men and a woman get into a silver car and drive away; police found shell casings in the area, but no suspects or victims.

UPTUN contends that Broadstripe services for customers in their franchise area are priced higher and are of lower quality than those offered by their competitors servicing other neighborhoods. (We imagine this is an opinion held by many neighbors.) UPTUN also describes a few less-direct effects that poor cable and broadband service has on a neighborhood: Tenants don’t want to lease and condo buyers don’t want to purchase when they find out they must use Broadstripe, negatively affecting vacancy rates; telecommuters and home businesses cannot count on Broadstripe to do their work; substandard services provided by the city and Broadstripe reinforce perceptions and stereotypes that the afflicted neighborhoods are of lesser value than others; and poor service through Broadstripe not only discourages families from moving in, but also provides an incentive to leave the neighborhood.

UPTUN’s quarterly meetings are held to ensure the improvements promised in the 2010 Work Plan are completed, and completed on-schedule.

Signs in the window of Sharon's Lutong Bahay, a Filipino restaurant just south of Beacon and Stevens, say that the restaurant's Grand Opening is this Friday, June 25. Photo by Wendi.Jerry Large of the Seattle Times (BHB news partners) featured Jeane Cook and Kim Nakamura in his column yesterday. Cook and Nakamura, who are both in their 90s, were honored by Beacon Hill International School (formerly Beacon Hill Elementary) for nearly 30 years of volunteer work at the school. Large also mentions that the BHIS Golden Acorn award for volunteers this year went to Pat Dederer, who has been helping at BHIS for 20 years. We here at the BHB would also like to express our gratitude to Cook, Nakamura, and Dederer for their service and contributions to the lives of Beacon Hill kids over the decades.

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You may have noticed some work near Jose Rizal Bridge this week. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) is installing curb ramps in the intersection of 12th Avenue South and South Charles Street at the north end of the bridge. Crews plan to work until Thursday, from 7 am to 2:30 pm each day. They will close the western and then the eastern sidewalk and parking strip, one at a time, to complete the work.

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Speaking of construction work, work on the Chief Sealth Trail Extension project will probably start in late August. The project will take about three months. Afterward, the trail will extend northwestward from Beacon Avenue South northwest to South Angeline/15th Avenue South.

SDOT has completed its environmental review of the project per the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA) and determined that there will be no significant adverse environmental impacts as a result of the project. To see the DNS and other environmental documents as well as a map of the project, see the project web site.

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Verity Credit Union is hosting a community shred-a-thon on Saturday from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. At this event, community members who don’t have their own shredders can have the security of shredding their sensitive documents. There is a suggested minimum donation of $10 which will be donated directly to the Beacon Hill Food Bank. Verity is located at 1660 South Columbian Way, Building 35.

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Helping Link, or Một Dấu Nối, is a non-profit group that provides tutoring, citizenship and English classes, and social services to the local Vietnamese community. They are having their annual fundraiser, the Seattle International Fashion Gala, this Saturday, June 26, at O’Asian Kitchen Restaurant. There will be an array of modern and traditional gowns premiered by fashion designers, Oscar Milano Mai and Chi Duyen, along with Asian cuisine.
Proceeds of ticket purchases will go towards the support of Helping Link’s community strengthening programs for Vietnamese refugees and immigrants. More information can be found on the website.

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The Bar del Corso pizzeria folks are holding a fundraiser on Sunday from 3:00 to 6:00 pm to help raise funds for the restaurant they plan to open on North Beacon Hill early next year. They say, “Jerry will be firing up the brick oven in our backyard garden, and making pizzas. With fava beans and garlic in season, we will be making some special pizzas with these ingredients, along with other classics.” The suggested donation is $100, but “the donation amount is suggested—pay what you can.” RSVP is required to info@bardelcorso.com (with RSVP in the subject line). They will send you a confirmation email with the details and the address of the party.

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Beacon Lutheran Church will be holding a Bible and Chinese Camp for children from ages 4 through 12 this summer, August 16-20. The program will run from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and will provide Bible lessons, singing, crafts, and games, as well as Chinese language and culture lessons. Snacks will be provided morning and afternoon, but each child should bring a sack lunch. For more information or to register, call Father Philip Wong, 253-277-1831 (in Chinese or English), or Eunice Graham, 206-323-0226 (English only).

Fire Station 13. Photo by Jason.Fire Station 13 is holding an open house this Sunday, June 27, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. The station next to Jefferson Park was designated as a landmark earlier this year. At the open house, guests may see the design of the fire station, meet the firefighters, and tour the engine. Families are welcome, so bring the kids! If you have questions, special needs, or language requirements, please contact Christina Faine at christina.faine@seattle.gov.

Fire Station 13 is located at 3601 Beacon Avenue South, at the intersection of Beacon Avenue South and South Spokane Street.

Sunday will be your last chance to buy pastries like these from A Touch of Sweden. Photo by Wendi.Update: Sale postponed until next weekend due to inclement weather.

We are sorry to hear that one of our new Beacon Hill businesses is closing. Kajsa Soderlund sent us this email:

A Touch of Sweden is sad to announce that we are going to need to close our business in Beacon Hill due to a family emergency. My dad who is in Sweden has cancer. It has become increasingly hard emotionally for me to be this far away from him, especially since learning to know his cancer has spread. Because of this, we have decided to go back to Sweden in August. At the end of this month, we are going to move to Minneapolis where PopTop is from and stay there until we leave for Sweden.

We are going to have a garage sale/bake salethis Sunday June 21 1pm to 5 pm between 1308 and 1312 Beacon Ave S 13th Ave S at S Judkins Street. We will sell furniture (like a platform bed, a dresser etc), glassware, books and other items to economically support our move. We would be most grateful for any donations or tips.

We will also have some baked goods for sale at this event.

Please, spread the word among family, neighbors, and friends. We need all the help we can get.

This is an announcement regarding the rescheduled date and time for A Touch of Sweden’s yard sale/ bake sale this Saturday July 3rd 9 AM to 5 PM at 13th Ave S/S Judkins Street (right next to the Pacific Medical building/Amazon). The previous yard sale/bake sale was canceled due to not good weather.

We are asking the Beacon Hill community to please support us. At the moment, we don’t have enough money to buy or rent a car and a trailer to take us back to Minneapolis since we only have $150. We are looking for a way to get a car through donation or a car we can sell in Minneapolis and send back the money to the seller before we leave for Sweden.

As of Sunday evening, we will have nowhere to stay in Seattle so it will be necessary for us to leave and head for Minneapolis Sunday July 4th in the afternoon/evening. Whatever donations or purchases at the yard sale will be greatly appreciated as we are in an urgent state where we need to leave Seattle for Sweden.